Armed robberies spread terror among residents in Marracuene – Watch

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Armed robberies spread terror among residents in Marracuene – Watch

2:11 CAT | 19 Apr 2018

Miramar

Residents of Kumbeza, in Marracuene district, Maputo province, are lambasting the spate of robberies in the neighbourhood of which they are the recurring victims. They claim that the robbers are prisoners who are released at night and are transported in a car belonging to the penitentiary services.

Some of the residents ask not to be identified for fear of reprisals by the men armed with various instruments who repeatedly invade their homes in the dead of night.

“We no longer sleep at ease in this neighbourhood. Our lives are abandoned to their own fate,” one resident said. “Even in houses with an electric fence, the robbers are able to get in, and they have no mercy or pity,” another added.

On Saturday, a total of ten residences were robbed. One of the victims says that a group of eight men invaded their house around three o’clock in the morning, stealing almost everything.

“It was a moment of sheer terror. The criminals burst into my house, and in my attempt to escape, I ended up contracting wounds,” he said. Among the goods stolen were a laptop, cell phones and a TV set.

“They tried unsuccessfully to get the goods out of my house, but when I threw the power supply circuit breaker, they fled,” he said.

The villagers say that the robbers are transported in a car belonging to the penitentiary services, and have no doubt that they are prisoners who are released at night.

“The individuals were in a vehicle of registration AEL 645 MC belonging to the penitentiary services, but when we gave made it known that we had requested help, they ran away,” he said.

“How can it be that people are using the state’s means to terrorise our lives? That’s quite awful!” he said.

Residents wonder that the same police that should be protecting them are looting their property.

Provincial Police Command in Matola say they are investigating the case, and that one of the seven gang members is currently in hospital. It is thought that the man was mistakenly shot by his cronies when attempting to threaten one of the victims.

Police promised to make a statement in due course.

One resident of the neighbourhood for five years, Phenias Matevula, has been forced by the constant robberies to leave his home.

“Robbers often came to rob my house to steal, even in broad daylight,” he says.

The residents say the robberies are leaving them adrift in a sea of uncertainty, the problem further worsened by the neighbourhood’s lack of street lighting. Residents are demanding the authorities take action by, for example, increasing police presence in the neighbourhood.

By Julião Job